Fouling Analysis in One-Stage Ultrafiltration of Precipitation-Treated Bacillus subtilis Fermentation Liquors for Biosurfactant Recovery

Primary recovery of surfactin from precipitation-pretreated fermentation broths of Bacillus subtilis ATCC 21332 culture by one-stage dead-end and cross-flow ultrafiltration (UF) was studied. Dead-end experiments were first performed to select suitable conditions, including the amount of added ethanol—a micelle-destabilizing solvent (0–70 vol%), type (polyethersulfone, polyacrylonitrile, poly(vinylidene fluoride)) and molecular-weight cut-off (MWCO, 30–100 kDa) of the membrane in the surfactin concentration range of 0.25–1.23 g/L. Then, the cross-flow UF experiments were conducted to check the recovery performance in the ranges of feed surfactin concentration of 1.13–2.67 g/L, flow velocity of 0.025–0.05 m/s, and transmembrane pressure of 40–100 kPa. The Hermia model was also used to clarify membrane fouling mechanisms. Finally, three cleaning agents and two in situ cleaning ways (flush and back-flush) were selected to regain the permeate flux. As for the primary recovery of surfactin from the permeate in cross-flow UF, a polyethersulfone membrane with 100-kDa MWCO was suggested, and the NaOH solution at pH 11 was used for membrane flushing.